David Limberský (born 6 October 1983) is a former

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...

professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who played for Czech clubs

FC Viktoria Plzeň Football Club Viktoria Plzeň () is a Czech professional Association football, football club based in Plzeň. It plays in the Czech First League, the top division of football in the country. As runner-up in the 1970–71 Czechoslovak Cup, the c ...

and

AC Sparta Prague Athletic Club Sparta Praha (), commonly known as Sparta Prague and Sparta Praha, is a professional association football, football club based in Prague. It is the most successful club in the Czech Republic and one of the most successful in cen ...

. He was a member of the

Czech Republic national football team The Czech Republic national football team (), recognised by FIFA as Czechia, represents the Czech Republic in men's international Association football, football. The team is controlled by the Football Association of the Czech Republic (FAČR). H ...

Club career

Early career

Born in

Plzeň Plzeň (), also known in English and German as Pilsen (), is a city in the Czech Republic. It is the Statutory city (Czech Republic), fourth most populous city in the Czech Republic with about 188,000 inhabitants. It is located about west of P ...

, Limberský played for hometown team

Viktoria Plzeň Viktoria usually refers to Viktoria, a name which is the same as Victoria (name), but may also refer to: Places * FK Viktoria Stadion, stadium of Viktoria Žižkov * Viktoria-Luise-Platz, building in Berlin * Viktoriastadt, now known as Victor ...

and spent time at Italian side

Modena Modena (, ; ; ; ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena, in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. It has 184,739 inhabitants as of 2025. A town, and seat of an archbis ...

on loan in the

2003–04 Serie A The 2003–04 Serie A (known as the Serie A TIM for sponsorship reasons) was the 102nd season of top-tier Italian football, the 72nd in a round-robin tournament. It contained 18 teams for the 16th and last time from the 1988–89 season. With th ...

. He joined

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as simply Tottenham (, , , ) or Spurs, is a professional Association football, football club based in Tottenham, North London, England. The club itself has stated that it should always ...

in December 2004 on a six-month loan. Upon signing for Tottenham, Limberský was compared to Czech legend

Pavel Nedvěd Pavel Nedvěd (; born 30 August 1972) is a Czech former professional Association football, footballer who played as a midfielder. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest Czech players of all time and he won numerous trophies with Italian cl ...

by Spurs coach

Martin Jol Maarten Cornelis "Martin" Jol (born 16 January 1956) is a Dutch football manager and former midfielder. He played over 400 games during his career which included spells in the Netherlands, Germany and England, as well as earning three caps wi ...

. Despite this, Limberský did not feature in any of Tottenham's matches during his time in England. Limberský played in the final of the

2009–10 Czech Cup The 2009–10 Czech Cup was the 17th edition of the annual association football, football knockout tournament organized by the Czech Football Association of the Czech Republic. It began on 19 July 2009 with the preliminary round and ended with he f ...

in a 2–1 victory against Jablonec. He played at the first

Czech Supercup The Czech Supercup () was an annual football match between the winners of the Czech First League and the Czech Cup, organised by the Czech Football Association. It was last sponsored by Synot Tip and was therefore officially known as the Synot ...

against

Sparta Prague Athletic Club Sparta Praha (), commonly known as Sparta Prague and Sparta Praha, is a professional football club based in Prague. It is the most successful club in the Czech Republic and one of the most successful in central Europe, winning t ...

in 2010, played the entire game as Sparta won 1–0. Limberský played in all of Plzeň's matches in the

2011–12 UEFA Champions League The 2011–12 UEFA Champions League was the 57th season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 20th season in its current Champions League format. As part of a trial that started in the 2009–10 UEFA Europa Lea ...

. In the group stages of the following season's Europa League, he was headbutted by

Diego Costa Diego da Silva Costa (, ; born 7 October 1988) is a professional Association football, footballer who most recently played as a Striker (association football), striker for Campeonato Brasileiro Série A club Grêmio FBPA, Grêmio. Costa be ...

, an incident which brought the

Atlético Madrid Club Atlético de Madrid, S.A.D. (; meaning "Athletic Club of Madrid"), commonly referred to as Atlético Madrid or simply Atlético, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid that plays in La Liga. The club play their home game ...

forward a four-match UEFA ban. Having ended his professional career in June 2021, Limberský joined third-tier club Jiskra Domažlice. On 13 January 2024, Limberský ended his football career due to a persistent knee injury and became sporting director of Jiskra Domažlice.

International career

Limberský played for the Czech Republic at the

2003 FIFA World Youth Championship The 2003 FIFA World Youth Championship was the 14th FIFA World Youth Championship. It took place in United Arab Emirates between 27 November and 19 December 2003. Brazil claimed their fourth title, becoming the first country to simultaneously ho ...

, scoring goals against Australia and Brazil respectively. On 5 June 2009, at the age of 25, Limberský debuted for the Czech senior squad in a 1-0 friendly victory against

Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...

. He was chosen as part of the Czech Republic's squad for the 2011

Kirin Cup The is an association football tournament organised in Japan by the Kirin Brewery Company. The host, Japan national football team, Japan, is a participant in every edition. The tournament was founded in 1978 then known as Japan Cup (Internatio ...

. However, Limberský did not feature in any of their games in the tournament.

UEFA Euro 2012

Despite not playing in any qualification match for major tournaments, as well as having never previously played a competitive game for his national side, Limberský was called up for

UEFA Euro 2012 The 2012 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2012 or simply Euro 2012, was the 14th UEFA European Championship, European Championship for List of men's national association football teams#UEFA (Europe), men's ...

. He was left out of the Czechs' first game against

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

, where his side were heavily beaten 4–1. Limberský was brought in for the Czech Republic's second game against

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

in his first ever competitive game for the national side, playing at left back. The Czech Republic won that game 2–1, with Limberský doing enough to be retained for the Czech Republic's must-win game against co-hosts

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

. His side defeated Poland 1–0 and ended up as group winners, meaning that they would face

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

in the quarter finals. Limberský again played left back against Portugal where the Czech Republic were knocked out after a 1–0 loss.

UEFA Euro 2016

Limberský was included in the final 23-man squad for the

UEFA EURO 2016 The 2016 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2016 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2016) or simply Euro 2016, was the 15th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's association football, football ch ...

, starting in all three of the Czech Republic's matches until its elimination from the group stage.

Controversy

Limberský gained media attention after crashing his

Bentley Bentley Motors Limited is a British designer, manufacturer and marketer of Luxury vehicle, luxury cars and Sport utility vehicle, SUVs. Headquartered in Crewe, England, the company was founded by W. O. Bentley (1888–1971) in 1919 in Crickle ...

car in September 2015 and subsequently behaving abusively towards several police officers and testing with a high

blood alcohol content Blood alcohol content (BAC), also called blood alcohol concentration or blood alcohol level, is a measurement of alcohol intoxication used for legal or medical purposes. BAC is expressed as mass of alcohol per volume of blood. In US and many i ...

, offences which carry a maximum three-year prison sentence. He was subsequently stripped of the

captaincy A captaincy ( , , ) is a historical administrative division of the former Spanish colonies, Spanish and Portuguese colonies, Portuguese colonial empires. It was instituted as a method of organization, directly associated with the home-rule admin ...

of Viktoria Plzeň and fined for "an absolutely unacceptable violation of the professional contract". Limberský apologised, but four days after the incident, celebrated his first of two goals in a 4–0 win against

Příbram Příbram (; or ''Przibram'') is a town in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 33,000 inhabitants. It is known for its mining history, and more recently, its new venture into economic restructuring. The town is the t ...

by pretending to drive a car. The club moved to distance itself from Limberský's gestures.

Career statistics

Club

International goals

''Scores and results list Czech Republic's goal tally first.''

Honours

Club

Viktoria Plzeň *

Czech First League The Czech First League () also known as the Chance Liga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in the Czech Republic and the highest level of the Czech Republic football league system. Seasons typically run from A ...

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

, 2014–15 *

Czech 2. Liga The Czech National Football League (, ''FNL''), known as Chance Národní Liga due to sponsorship reasons, is the second level professional association football league in the Czech Republic. Before 2013 it was known as 2. liga or Druhá liga. The ...

: 2002–03 *

Czech Cup The Czech Cup (), officially known as the MOL Cup for sponsorship reasons, is the major men's football cup competition in the Czech Republic. It is organised by the Czech Football Association. The Czech Cup was first held in 1961. The winner ...

: 2009-10 *

: 2011

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Limbersky, David 1983 births Living people Footballers from Plzeň Men's association football fullbacks Czech men's footballers Czech Republic men's youth international footballers Czech Republic men's under-21 international footballers Czech Republic men's international footballers Czech expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in England Czech expatriate sportspeople in Italy Czech expatriate sportspeople in England FC Viktoria Plzeň players Tottenham Hotspur F.C. players Modena FC 2018 players AC Sparta Prague players Serie A players Czech First League players UEFA Euro 2012 players UEFA Euro 2016 players Bohemian Football League players TJ Jiskra Domažlice players 21st-century Czech sportsmen